Miami Settles Cop Shooting Case; Reforms In Place

By |March 9, 2005

The city of Miami has agreed to pay $500,000 to the family of an unarmed 18-year-old fatally shot in the back of the head during police crossfire four years ago, reports the Miami Herald. The settlement, if approved by city commissioners and a federal judge, would be the last in a flurry of bad-shooting lawsuits that have cost Miami taxpayers more than $5 million in the past decade.

Federal indictments, newspaper probes, and community outrage over a spate of questionable shootings prompted a sweeping overhaul at the department — including the resignation of the police chief and the adoption of stun guns as an alternative to bullets. The result: only one fatal Miami police shooting in the past two years. Taxpayers are responsible for $350,000 of the settlement; insurance will cover the remaining $150,000. The victim was a passenger in a vehicle mistakenly identified by police as involved in a carjacking earlier that evening.

The legislation marks a major change for Republicans, who long hve embraced a law-and-order rallying cry. Now many GOP senators argue for rehabilitating more offenders rather than long-time incarceration.

An Arizona doctor argues that the government should have learned from previous federal anti-drug strategies that blanket prohibition doesn’t work. He calls for scrapping attempts to curtail opioids and replacing it with “harm reduction” policies.

Expensive medications for inmates can lead to substandard care and delays in treatment, and that may have lasting—even deadly—consequences for incarcerated individuals, writes a prison health care advocate.

Murder rates in the nation’s 30 largest cities are projected to fall by nearly 6 percent this year according to the latest data, undercutting claims that the nation is experiencing a “crime wave,” says the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

School safety commission proposes ending a federal guideline telling schools not to punish minorities at higher rates. The panel largely sidestepped issues relating to guns, although it favors arming some school personnel.